topspin

plural topspins

1. countableuncountableA rotational motion, especially that given to a ball, in which the upper surface spins in the direction of motion.

   The tennis star was famed for her topspin.

2. uncountablebroadcastingAn edgy, quirky or otherwise engaging quality that holds the interest of the audience.

   Well remembered as a visual comedienne, she also had the verbal knack of putting all sorts of topspin on a line.

   1994, Richard D. Heldenfels, Television's Greatest Year: 1954, page 70

   2 more examples

   Flashdance had a quality known as top spin, in which the casting, the concept and the look and sound of the movie all come together.

   2010, Justin Wyatt, High Concept: Movies and Marketing in Hollywood

   2016, Quentin Letts, "A Very English Scandal: sex, lies and a murder plot at the heart of the establishment by John Preston - review" (in Evening Standard, 28 April 2016) https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/books/a-very-english-scandal-sex-lies-and-a-murder-plot-at-the-heart-of-the-establishment-by-john-preston-a3236271.html This fluent, readable book has certainly been polished with a fair degree of what Fleet Street feature editors once called topspin: “Give it some topspin, old boy. Make the copy sing.” In this John Preston more than succeeds.

present singular third person topspins · participle present topspinning · participle past topspun · past topspun

1. transitiveTo spin (a ball) with this motion.

   He could keep winning through attrition, with a relentless barrage of topspinning ground strokes and a tireless defense of his own side, where would-be winners go to die.

   2007 August 27, John Branch, “His Next Line to Cross”, in New York Times